Stannis Baratheon
Outside - Castle Black
He had struggled with the choice for a week.
When he had arrived at the Wall, he had already fallen low. He had retreated to the Wall. The Northern lords had long since returned to their holdfasts, although most waited at Deepwood Motte, vowing they would return to stand with him when he marched again. Yet he had paid dearly for it with the death of Theon and the ransoming of Asha for the wife and children of Robert Glover.
March again. How could he march with the Snow falling and morale broken? Who would follow him now? He had fought four times, and two times he had lost. Both times he had lost were times he shouldn't have.
Then Melisandre had come to him and told him what she had found: dragon eggs turned to stone. She told him that King's blood had power, had shown him the power of King's Blood, and she gave the suggestion.
The corpse of Jon Snow, his blood still frozen in the body, the blood of the Kings of Winter, and the blood of his own daughter would wake dragons from stone.
Stannis knew the histories. Dragonfire had conquered the realm. The realm he was the rightful ruler of had been built by dragons, and he had a duty to that realm, to defend it from itself and from what was to come.
Two major voices of the North, Maege Mormont and Howland Reed, had come to the Wall seeking Snow, only to find him dead. They had told Stannis that if he pursued this matter, he would lose the support of the North. He had cared little for what the North thought. The power of dragons would make them bow. The North had bowed to dragons before and would do so again.
So when he gave the order, he told himself it was for the realm.
For the realm. For my duty.
Yet was duty enough when he saw the fear in her eyes? The pleading words of his daughter? Worse still, the screams that came later?
Then the fire had roared, burning bright, and from the sky came dragons, not mere hatchlings, but beasts the size of the skulls he had seen in the throne room before Robert had moved them to the cellars of the Red Keep. Beast that had forged the realm.
He thought, perhaps, the survival of the realm was worth it.
Yet then his daughter came walking out of the pyre behind Jon Snow.
One thought came back into his mind. She was alive.
He was looking at the daughter he had chosen to burn alive.
He had fallen so far that he would burn his own daughter alive.
The thought made his legs shake.
For what had he done it? A prophecy? Duty? The realm?
What kind of King burns his daughter?
A king is the father of his realm. He has a duty to the realm. Yet he had failed in his duty as a father to protect his daughter.
He had failed. I am a failure.
His knees buckled, and he fell.
He did not feel the cold of the snow. What he felt was the pain and disgust of what he had done.
He looked around and saw the lords staring at him in surprise. To his left, he saw his wife, who had broken down during the burning of their daughter. She had cried and begged him to stop when it was already too late.
Stannis looked back toward his daughter and Jon Snow, and the two dragons that surrounded them. I am a fool.
"For fuck's sake, bring them some cloaks, and make sure to shut up that woman," Maege Mormont commanded.
Receiving two cloaks, she walked over to the pair. The dragons and the wolf let her pass.
"Your Grace, you have to rise. A King cannot kneel," Lord Bartin Estermont pleaded, one of the few Stormland lords still with him. A good man, following a failure. A man who had failed his duty.
"The man is a kneeler. Burns his own daughter and still fucking kneels for King Crow. Like we all will. Conqueror of death, she kissed by fire."
One of the wildling leaders mocked him.
He noticed it now.
All the wildlings had knelt.
Wildlings did not kneel. Yet they had now not for him, but for his daughter and Jon Snow.
Then he remembered what Melisandre had told him when he asked about his purpose as Azor Ahai.
She had always said, "I only see snow."
He thought it meant he would fight in the snow. But seeing his daughter walk out of the burning pyre beside him, he understood.
Azor Ahai… it was Jon Snow, not him.
He was just a man who killed his brother with blood magic and tried to burn his daughter alive to wake dragons from stone.
He was awakened from his stupor by a harsh voice full of anger. "Lord Stannis Baratheon."
He looked up and saw Jon Snow standing before him. His daughter stood at the man's side, now cloaked in black. Her face was that of someone heartbroken, but what shocked him was the disappearance of her greyscale scar. Only a red spot remained.
"I have come to understand you burned your daughter alive." It was not a question. It was a statement.
He stared at his daughter as Jon Snow spoke. "For this monstrous and unforgivable act of attempted kinslaying, as the true heir to the Iron Throne." True heir to the Iron Throne? he thought, confused.
"I sentence you, Stannis, to live at the Wall. A way to make up for the worst mistake you ever made. The world of men may still need your command when the Others come." Jon Snow's voice carried the authority that reminded him of Robert when his brother led men into war.
Those were the times Robert had been at his best.
He looked toward his daughter again, and the weight of failure wrapped around him like a rope around his neck.
"Please kill me. I deserve it," he pleaded.
Stannis did not see the blow coming.
His head rang with pain as he fell face-first into the cold, comforting Snow. "Get up."
He felt himself being pulled up by the collar of his vest. "You tried to burn your own daughter alive. You do not deserve a quick end. You deserve to live with that choice."
Jon Snow snarled at him. "Put him in the ice cells. Put the red witch in one as well. The same applies to anyone who put Princess Shireen on the pyre. They will be detained as well. Their fates will be decided in the days to come."
Jon turned away. "Now, after Princess Shireen and I are clothed, I want to know what the fuck happened in the time since those cunts killed me."
Jon walked away from him with a look of disgust. His daughter followed, not looking back at him once.
Not much later, the men who had followed Stannis were rounded up and half-frozen in the ice cells.
Howland Reed
Outside - Castle Black
He had traveled all this way to finally tell the son of one of his greatest friends the truth. He had brought everything the proof of his King's legitimacy, even King Robb's will, even if he had never sworn a vow to him as king. Aemon had always been his King. Yet he had fought for the North and sent men with Robb Stark, the son of his liege lord, to fight for his home and for his friend.
Yet when he arrived, he learned that Lyanna's son was dead, slain in a mutiny after he had broken his oath to march against the Boltons and save his sister. A girl who had fled and was now somewhere in Braavos most likely, under the protection of Justin Massey and Alysane Mormont.
When they arrived, the Night's Watch was also in chaos and still in the process of choosing a new Lord Commander. Something they had only resolved about a week ago. The new commander had become one of her son's friends, the second choice having been Ser Alliser, a Targaryen loyalist who apparently had never liked Aemon.
When the day came, he and Maege had decided that the only option was to pay their respects and stay until Jon's body was burned, and then help reform the Watch to make sure it held against what was beyond the Wall.
To honor Jon Stark's memory, or Aemon Targaryen's memory.
Or at least that had been the plan.
They had argued with Stannis then, telling him that if he pursued the act of burning his daughter, the whole North would break from him. There had already been rumors that he had killed Renly with blood magic, but burning your own daughter alive that would cost him everything.
Yet Stannis had made up his mind, and he had been forced to watch in horror as Shireen Baratheon was burned.
What could he do?
He and Maege only had forty men between them, and he was not sure the wildlings would follow him. And so, to his shame, Shireen was burned alive alongside the body of Aemon Targaryen.
Now he still looked as dazed as all the rest of them.
As Aemon walked naked and alive out of a fire that should have burned him to ash.
A small dragon the color of gold, with green wings, rested upon his shoulder.
Beside him stood Princess Shireen, with a dragon the color of purple with silver streaks along its wings.
Beside them stood two enormous dragons. Where they had come from, he had no idea.
He and Maege looked around in surprise.
The wildlings had knelt.
Something, to his understanding, they did not do.
Ghost, the direwolf, had been too calm, as if the wolf had known something they had not. Now the beast walked over to Aemon and stood beside him like a giant protector.
Fire and ice, Howland thought as he looked at the sight.
Targaryen and Stark.
Maege had been the first to shout them into action, ordering cloaks to be brought for the pair, which was quickly done.
Then Aemon had walked over to King Stannis and given him a tongue-lashing, a sentencing, and a punch.
To his surprise, he had heard the words spoken in the name of the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
After that, the king had been taken away and marched back into Castle Black. Together with Satin, Tormund Giantsbane, Lord Commander Eddison Tollett, as well as the First Ranger Alliser Thorne.
The other two great dragons had curled up around the pyre, sleeping, having quieted since their arrival.
Especially the black dragon, which had arrived in a fury and killed one of Stannis's foolish knights, swallowing the man in a single bite.
Where they had come from, he did not know.
Only that it seemed they had come for Aemon and Shireen.
The silver dragon had seemed particularly interested in the princess.
"Howland? What do you make of all this?" It was Maege who had spoken, breaking him from his thoughts.
"I have hope again," he said slowly. "However, I do not know where those two dragons came from. Essos, perhaps, although they look far too large to have been hatched by Daenerys Targaryen."
"Yes, but why do four dragons now surround our king? He no longer needs King Robb's will to free him from the Watch. He served until his death, and he has risen from that. Even Princess Shireen was spared the flames. Still, what is at work here, Howland?"
Maege looked from him to the dragons warily. "Well, winter is here, and you heard why those wildlings came from the lands beyond the Wall. We planned to stay and help the Watch. Now we must help our king."
He paused before continuing. "They knelt, Maege. The wildlings knelt to an outsider and their protector. As far as I know, they do not kneel."
He still struggled to believe it.
"Even the giants, ten of them, also knelt to him." His voice was still shaky from the day's events.
"Come," Maege said. "Let us speak with our king. With all this behind us, perhaps the Freys and the Boltons will finally receive the justice they deserve."
She looked at him expectantly.
"Let's see our king," he said.
They walked toward Castle Black, the air thick with anticipation.
His mind raced.
Howland knew the truth about Jon Snow, Aemon Targaryen, the trueborn son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.
He had carried this secret for years, waiting for the right moment.
That moment had come.
The man who had sworn him to silence was gone.
And the oath that Aemon had sworn to the Night's Watch had died with him.
Jon Snow/Aemon Targaryen
Castle Black - King's Towers solar.
After clothing himself in the main chamber and leaving the two small dragons and Shireen there together with Ghost, he returned to the solar.
He sat in the chair that had once belonged to Mormont and later to Stannis.
Stannis. What had happened to that man? Had he gone mad, or had the zealotry within him grown so strong that he was willing to burn his own daughter?
Yet by some act of the gods, or perhaps protective magic, Shireen had been spared. Even her face had been healed. As had his own scars, except for those from his murder.
He thought on it as he looked up at Tormund, Edd, and Ser Alliser.
"So, what happened after I was killed?" He paused. "Wait. Before anything else, what happened with Mance and my sister?"
Edd and Tormund exchanged a glance.
"Mance is dead," Tormund snarled. "Stannis told us. The Boltons flayed him and hung his body in front of the main gate of Winterfell."
Jon closed his eyes.
"Arya? She is still in the hands of the Boltons, I take it?" he said in a low growl.
The fury inside him flared. His grip tightened on the arm of the chair.
"No, Jon," Edd said quickly. "She escaped the Boltons. Together with her retinue, Alysane Mormont and Justin Massey. They have gone to Braavos."
Jon's heart leapt into his throat. "She escaped those bastards?"
Edd nodded.
"Then perhaps I did not die in vain," Jon said quietly. "I will send word to her. Though I wish she were by my side. Until the Boltons are gone, the North is not safe."
He looked back to the others. "What of the Watch? What happened after my death?"
The three men glanced at each other before Tormund spoke.
"After your murder, it was chaos. Your wolf killed one of your attackers, and another was slain in the confusion. Only Bowen Marsh and Othell Yarwyck remain. Along with ten more conspirators."
"Where are they now?" Jon asked.
"Rotting in the ice cells."
Jon frowned. "Ten more?"
"Yes," Edd said grimly. "Bowen Marsh tampered with the letter Ramsay sent you. They changed it to make it more provocative, to make sure you would march against the Boltons and break your oath."
"They planned to burn the shields and burn you with the Boltons. But when Wun Wun caused the commotion, their plans changed. So they killed you in a hurry."
Jon nodded slowly. "Hmm, so those fools thought it was a good idea to burn around two hundred freeflok, and part of the watch?"
"Yeah, Bowen needed to lose a hand before he spilt on what he and his conspirators had planned," Tormund muttered, with a chuckle.
"That's what hate and fury do, I'm guilty of these two, aren't I, Ser Alister?" He gave the man a smile and thought back to when he had attacked him after baiting him with his words. "Indeed," Alister replied.
"It causes you to act rashly and without thought. The Freeflok would have attacked us; we made peace with them, and the watch would have fallen to them. Or at least the group that still stands behind old grudges." He stated, and the group all nodded in agreement. "What else happened?"
"The Watch remained in chaos for some time," Alliser said. "The Free Folk helped repair the castles. Later, Edd was named Lord Commander. The Karstarks in the ice cells took the black."
Jon studied him.
"It seems you have changed," Jon said.
"I have," Alliser replied quietly. "I was with you ad Hardhome, the dead, and the others are as real as next. If we do not work together we all will be dead, and what point, in of lives, if to be enslaved by those monders. I just needed time to come gripps with all, to see my faults."
Jon understood that well.
He had seen it too, what happened at Hardhome, those eyes of their leader upon him, how the dead were raised, and later when he warged with Ghost and patrolled beyond the Wall. Seeing the truth of it changed something inside you.
"And Edd," Jon added with a faint smile, "congratulations on your promotion. I am sure you will do well."
Edd laughed weakly. "Thank you. But you can have it back, Jon. It's a shit job."
"Sorry," Jon said. "My watch has ended, and my days at the Wall are done. I have a North to set right and a realm to warn about what is coming. I doubt Castle Black can house two full-grown dragons."
"True enough," Alliser said. "You served your oath, even if you broke it at the end. Though I can see why. The more I hear of the Boltons, the less chance we have of surviving the winter with them ruling the North."
Alliser watched him carefully.
Did he know? Did he see something different in him now?
Because of the white hair.
His coloring had saved him in the past, allowing his uncle or father to disguise him. As his bastard.
"Speaking of the Boltons," Jon said, "what happened between them and Stannis?"
"Stannis lost the battle," Edd replied.
"I thought as much," Jon said grimly. "Otherwise, Stannis the kinslayer would not be here."
Edd nodded.
"From what I know, Stannis lured them onto a frozen lake. Many of the enemy fell through when the ice broke, mostly Freys. But Stannis's forces were already weakened by cold and starvation."
"The Karstarks betrayed him during the battle, attacking from the side. It would have been a total defeat if the Manderlys had not killed part of the Frey forces sent to attack Stannis."
"Good," Jon muttered. "A dead Frey is a good Frey. What happened after the battle?"
"Stannis's forces split after suffering too many casualties," Edd explained. "Most of the northern troops fell back to Deepwood Motte or returned to their holdfasts along the way. Stannis took Asha and Theon Greyjoy with him."
"And later he executed Theon." Jon blinked.
"What? I thought that treacherous bastard died during the sack of Winterfell after killing my little brothers. Though I later learned from Sam that he did not."
"Apparently not," Edd said. "The Bastard of Bolton flayed him until he was so broken he called himself Reek. By all accounts he looked fifty years old and wanted to die."
Jon exhaled slowly. "He deserved death for his treachery. But flaying… I would not wish that on anyone."
"I am surprised Stannis did not burn him as he tried to do with Shireen. Perhaps he wished to ingratiate himself with the North by executing him the old way."Fury filled his veins.
Outside, he felt the rage of the black dragon stir. Calm down, or you might burn the castle. He breathed deeply.
Theon was dead. The man who had destroyed his childhood home. The man who had betrayed Robb. Yet he had known Theon most of his life. And now he was gone.
"Jon?" Edd asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Sorry," Jon said quietly. "I felt such rage just then. Theon may not have killed Bran or Rickon, but he still betrayed Robb and brought destruction to my home."
Not your home, a voice inside him whispered.
"I understand," Edd said gently.
"But that wasn't all," Alliser added. "Stannis also traded Asha Greyjoy to Lord Robett Glover in exchange for his wife and children."
"Stannis then marched back here. With the horses lost in battle, the army had better supplies for the journey back along the Kingsroad."
Jon nodded slowly.
"Well, that explains his desperation. Yet murdering your own daughter…" Jon sighed.
"Was the man truly so convinced he was Azor Ahai? Finding those dragon eggs likely did not help."
"Who found them?" he asked.
"The Red Woman saw them in her flames," Tormund muttered bitterly.
Jon considered that. "Then the eggs likely came from Aemon and Brynden Rivers, or perhaps they were part of a clutch from Silverwing when Queen Alysanne visited the Wall."
Tormund and Edd looked confused.
Alliser's eyes lit up.
"Targaryens who came to the Wall may have left the eggs here," Jon explained.
"And now they are hatched," Alliser said quietly. "They seem attached to you."
"They are," Jon replied.
"And we are fortunate they are here now. The realm will need them when the Others come." He looked to Edd.
"The Wall will be in good hands with you, Lord Commander."
Jon suddenly felt exhausted.
Perhaps that was not surprising, considering he had returned from the dead.
He yawned loudly.
"I am sorry. I feel quite tired."
"Edd, could you ask Satin to bring two bowls of food for Shireen and me? I wish to speak with her, and we can eat together."
"Of course, Jon," Edd said, rising from his seat.
"Thank you. On the morrow, we will discuss our future plans."
The three men began to leave.
"Wait," Jon added.
"One more thing. Give the order that no word be spoken of the dragons. I need them to remain a secret for now."
"As you wish," Edd replied.
They left together.
Jon walked to the bedchamber door and knocked.
"Shireen, you can join me. I have had food brought for us. I would like to speak with you."
Shireen opened the door and stepped into the solar.
"Of course, Jon. And I could certainly use something to eat."
Behind her came Ghost, followed by the two small dragons.
(New updates again in June)
Hello everyone!
If you've enjoyed my stories and would like to support my work, consider joining my community. Your support means the world to me and helps me continue creating the content you and I love.
By becoming a Patreon, you'll get access to exclusive benefits like:
- Early access to new chapters (Up to Four months ahead)
- Writing and story updates.
- Access to concept art for the stories.
- And, of course, you will support me.
- And much more!
Join now and be part of a community that loves and supports creativity. Your contribution makes a huge difference and allows me to keep bringing you exciting new stories.
If you want to join, go to Patreon. Copy this link : www.patreon.com/HeroDut1998
Thank you for all your support!